Various electronic book systems are known. One electronic book system is capable of recognizing print elements such as figures, letters, and codes that are printed on the sheets of a book. The book is mounted at a fixed location, and the user can arbitrarily designate a specific location to identify a particular print element on the sheet. A sensor system can detect the arbitrarily-designated location. A location detection circuit can, from a determination of an absolute location signal or a predetermined reference point, plus the arbitrarily-designated location point, determine the print element that the user selected. A ROM (read only memory) can be appropriately addressed by the sensor system to provide additional information corresponding print element. The ROM contains the location of the selected print element and related information for that location. The related information can be retrieved for subsequent processing, for example, by a computer-driven system that can provide audio and video images that are related to the selected print element.
While such electronic book systems are useful, many improvements could be made. For example, such electronic book systems do not engage a user in any other activity than selecting a particular figure or letter. To help a user retain knowledge of a particular figure or letter, it would be desirable if the user could interact with the electronic book systems in other ways. Moreover, it would be desirable if the electronic book systems could have other features that could attract a user to use it. By doing so, a user would become more engaged with the book system. The electronic book system could thus be a more effective learning tool than such conventional systems.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems.